Why does GeoServer/OpenLayers show only points from my PostGIS?

Question

I am reading the PostGIS in Action book now and I have a problem with one example:

• I have created a table:

  CREATE TABLE my_geometries (id serial NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, name varchar(20));

• I have added some points to this table:

  SELECT AddGeometryColumn('public','my_geometries', 'my_points',-1,'POINT',2);

  INSERT INTO my_geometries (name,my_points) VALUES ('Home',ST_GeomFromText('POINT(0 0)'));

  INSERT INTO my_geometries (name,my_points) VALUES ('Pizza 1',ST_GeomFromText('POINT(1 1)')) ;

• And some linestrings as well:

  SELECT AddGeometryColumn ('public','my_geometries', 'my_linestrings',-1,'LINESTRING',2);

  INSERT INTO my_geometries (name,my_linestrings) VALUES ('Linestring Open', ST_GeomFromText('LINESTRING(0 0,1 1,1 -1)'));

  INSERT INTO my_geometries (name,my_linestrings) VALUES ('Linestring Closed', ST_GeomFromText('LINESTRING(0 0,1 1,1 -1, 0 0)'));

The problem is that for some reason I do not see the linestrings in the OpenLayers window of GeoServer, but all the points are on their place.

The GeoServer's 'Edit layer' page for my_workspace:my_geometries shows Feature Type Details having both my_points and my_linestrings columns.

What is the problem here? How can I see both points and linestrings that I have added to my database in GeoServer's OpenLayers window?

Answer 1

Do you have two styles for your layer? You will need to create a style to draw the points (using one geometry column) and another to draw the lines (using the other geometry column). This is because by default GeoServer will use the first geometry column as the default.

If you follow Kelso's suggestion of combining the geometries into one column you will need to look at http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/styling/sld-tipstricks/mixed-geometries.html to see how to make the SLD work the way you expect (the default will apply a point symbolizer to the line center).

Answer 2

While this is not a direct answer to why you can't see the linestrings in OpenLayers, you can store multiple geometries in one column, overcoming your need for two different columns. If you then wanted to separate them out, you could create a view, one selecting the lines, one selecting the points and linking these through geoserver. If you want to see both geometries, just link to my_geometries and geoserver / openlayers will display both.

To use multiple geometries in a column, use:

SELECT AddGeometryColumn('public','my_geometries', 'my_geom',-1,'GEOMETRY',2);